APG Names Three Winners of the 2018 Young Professional Scholarship

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo., 7 September 2018 — The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) announced today the winners of the APG Young Professional Scholarship for 2018. This year, APG chose three winners: Nefi Arenas Salazar of Mexico City, Mexico; Alec Ferretti of New York, New York; and Miyamoto Loretta Jensen of Orem, Utah. APG sponsored the scholarship for Ferretti, and AncestryProGenealogists sponsored the scholarships for Arenas Salazar and Jensen.

The APG Young Professional Scholarship is awarded to students or young professionals between the ages of 18 and 29 who aspire to a professional career in genealogy. The scholarship includes registration for the APG Professional Management Conference (PMC) and a stipend to defray costs of travel and lodging at the conference.

Nefi Arenas Salazar, a graduate from Brigham Young University, Idaho, is a family research specialist for his local Latter-Day Saint (LDS) church and a moderator for Investigación Genealógica FamilySearch’s new communities website. He is a founding member of the Utah Chapter of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America and recently wrote an article for its journal. In 2017, he was a speaker at a Culture and History Forum for the town of El Oro, in the State of Mexico, Mexico, for which he was interviewed by Radio Mexiquense. He is the owner of Parentum Genealogy Services and also provides genealogical assistance to an El Oro historian who is writing a town history.

Alec Ferretti is a graduate of Vassar College and is currently in New York University’s Dual Degree Masters Program for Archives & Library Science. He is the president of the New York Genealogy & Technology Group, a volunteer organization that organizes lectures and educational programming to foster the link between technology and genealogical research. He works as a family history researcher for The Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center. He is also the compiler of the New Jersey Marriage Index, 1901-2016, having fought for its right to publication using New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, P.L. 2001, c. 404. The index is now available for free on The Internet Archive. He is currently working on publishing the never-before released Connecticut Birth Index, 1896-1918.

Miyamoto Loretta Jensen is a graduate of Brigham Young University’s Family History Program, with a Polynesian emphasis. She works as an oral-history processing intern for the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. She has had several genealogy internships, including one at the Hawaii State Archives, Honolulu, Hawaii. She plans to pursue a law degree, focused on legal history, and to work as a professional genealogist.

“Congratulations to our esteemed Young Professionals,” said APG President Billie Stone Fogarty. “This year’s recipients offer an incredibly diverse breadth of experience. We thank AncestryProGenealogists for sponsoring two of this year’s winners.”

About the Association of Professional Genealogists

The Association of Professional Genealogists, established in 1979, represents more than 2,700 genealogists, librarians, writers, editors, historians, instructors, booksellers, publishers, and others involved in genealogy-related businesses. APG encourages genealogical excellence, ethical practice, mentoring and education. The organization also supports the preservation and accessibility of records useful to the fields of genealogy and history. Its members represent all fifty states, Canada, and thirty other countries. APG is active on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

About the Author

Genealogy educator and author Thomas MacEntee has been researching his family history for more than 40 years and is the creator of Abundant Genealogy, Genealogy Bargains, DNA Bargains, The Genealogy Do-Over and numerous other web-based genealogy and family history properties.